36- RA 9994 - The Expanded Senior Citizens Act - University of Minnesota

Republic Act No. 9994

AN ACT GRANTING ADDITIONAL BENEFITS AND PRIVILEGES TO

SENIOR CITIZENS, FURTHER AMENDING REPUBLIC ACT NO. 7432, AS

AMENDED, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS "AN ACT TO MAXIMIZE THE

CONTRIBUTION OF SENIOR CITIZENS TO NATION BUILDING, GRANT

BENEFITS AND SPECIAL PRIVILEGES AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES"

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in

Congress assembled:

Section 1. Title. - This Act Shall be known as the "Expanded Senior Citizens Act

of 2010."

Section 2. Section 1 of Republic Act No. 7432, as amended by Republic Act No. 9257,

otherwise known as the "Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2003", is hereby further

amended to read as follows:

"SECTION 1. Declaration of Policies and Objectives. - As provided in the Constitution of

the Republic of the Philippines, it is the declared policy of the State to promote a just

and dynamic social order that will ensure the prosperity and independence of the nation

and free the people from poverty through policies that provide adequate social services,

promote full employment, a rising standard of living and an improved quality of life. In

the Declaration of Principles and State Policies in Article II, Sections 10 and 11, it is

further declared that the State shall provide social justice in all phases of national

development and that the State values the dignity of every human person and

guarantees full respect for human rights.

"Article XIII, Section 11 of the Constitution provides that the Sate shall adopt an

integrated and comprehensive approach to health development which shall endeavor to

make essential goods, health and other social services available to all the people at

affordable cost. There shall be priority for the needs of the underprivileged, sick, elderly,

disabled, women and children. Article XV, Section 4 of the Constitution Further declares

that it is the duty of the family to take care of its elderly members while the State may

design programs of social security for them.

"Consistent with these constitutional principles, this Act shall serve the following

objectives:

"(a) To recognize the rights of senior citizens to take their proper place in society

and make it a concern of the family, community, and government;

"(b) To give full support to the improvement of the total well-being of the elderly

and their full participation in society, considering that senior citizens are integral

part of Philippine society;

"(c) To motivate and encourage the senior citizens to contribute to nation

building;

"(d) To encourage their families and the communities they live with to reaffirm

the valued Filipino tradition of caring for the senior citizens;

"(e) To provide a comprehensive health care and rehabilitation system for

disabled senior citizens to foster their capacity to attain a more meaningful and

productive ageing; and

"(f) To recognize the important role of the private sector in the improvement of

the welfare of senior citizens and to actively seek their partnership.

"In accordance with these objectives, this Act shall:

"(1) establish mechanisms whereby the contributions of the senior citizens are

maximized;

"(2) adopt measures whereby our senior citizens are assisted and appreciated by

the community as a whole;

"(3) establish a program beneficial to the senior citizens, their families and the

rest of the community they serve: and

"(4) establish community-based health and rehabilitation programs for senior

citizens in every political unit of society."

Section 3. Section 2 of Republic Act No. 7432, as amended by Republic Act No. 9257,

otherwise known as the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2003", is hereby further

amended to read as follows:

SEC. 2. Definition of terms. - For purposes of this Act, these terms are defined as

follows:

"(a) Senior citizen or elderly refers to any resident citizen of the Philippines at

least sixty (60) years old;

"(b) Geriatrics refer to the branch of medical science devoted to the study of the

biological and physical changes and the diseases of old age;

"(c) Lodging establishment refers to a building, edifice, structure, apartment or

house including tourist inn, apartelle, motorist hotel, and pension house engaged

in catering, leasing or providing facilities to transients, tourists or travelers;

"(d) Medical Services refer to hospital services, professional services of

physicians and other health care professionals and diagnostics and laboratory

tests that the necessary for the diagnosis or treatment of an illness or injury;

"(e) Dental services to oral examination, cleaning, permanent and temporary

filling, extractions and gum treatments, restoration, replacement or repositioning

of teeth, or alteration of the alveolar or periodontium process of the maxilla and

the mandible that are necessary for the diagnosis or treatment of an illness or

injury;

"(f) Nearest surviving relative refers to the legal spouse who survives the

deceased senior citizen: Provided, That where no spouse survives the decedent,

this shall be limited to relatives in the following order of degree of kinship:

children, parents, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, uncles and aunts;

"(g) Home health care service refers to health or supportive care provided to the

senior citizen patient at home by licensed health care professionals to include,

but not limited to, physicians, nurses, midwives, physical therapist and

caregivers; and

"(h) Indigent senior citizen, refers to any elderly who is frail, sickly or with

disability, and without pension or permanent source of income, compensation or

financial assistance from his/her relatives to support his/her basic needs, as

determined by the Department of Social Welfare and development (DSWD) in

consultation with the National Coordinating and Monitoring Board."

Section 4 Section 4 of Republic Act No. 7432, as amended by Republic Act No. 9257,

otherwise known as the "Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2003", is hereby further

amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 4. Privileges for the Senior Citizens. The senior citizens shall be entitled to the following:

"(a) the grant of twenty percent (20%) discount and exemption from the value -added

tax (VAT), if applicable, on the sale of the following goods and services from all

establishments, for the exclusive use and enjoyment or availment of the senior citizen

"(1) on the purchase of medicines, including the purchase of influenza and

pnuemococcal vaccines, and such other essential medical supplies, accessories

and equipment to be determined by the Department of Health (DOH).

"The DOH shall establish guidelines and mechanism of compulsory rebates in the

sharing of burden of discounts among retailers, manufacturers and distributors,

taking into consideration their respective margins;

"(2) on the professional fees of attending physician/s in all private hospitals,

medical facilities, outpatient clinics and home health care services;

"(3) on the professional fees of licensed professional health providing home

health care services as endorsed by private hospitals or employed through home

health care employment agencies;

"(4) on medical and dental services, diagnostic and laboratory fees in all private

hospitals, medical facilities, outpatient clinics, and home health care services, in

accordance with the rules and regulations to be issued by the DOH, in

coordination with the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth);

"(5) in actual fare for land transportation travel in public utility buses (PUBs),

public utility jeepneys (PUJs), taxis, Asian utility vehicles (AUVs), shuttle

services and public railways, including Light Rail Transit (LRT), Mass Rail

Transit (MRT), and Philippine National Railways (PNR);

"(6) in actual transportation fare for domestic air transport services and sea

shipping vessels and the like, based on the actual fare and advanced booking;

"(7) on the utilization of services in hotels and similar lodging establishments,

restaurants and recreation centers;

"(8) on admission fees charged by theaters, cinema houses and concert halls,

circuses, leisure and amusement; and

"(9) on funeral and burial services for the death of senior citizens;

"(b) exemption from the payment of individual income taxes of senior citizens who are

considered to be minimum wage earners in accordance with Republic Act No. 9504;

"(c) the grant of a minimum of five percent (5%) discount relative to the monthly

utilization of water and electricity supplied by the public utilities: Provided, That the

individual meters for the foregoing utilities are registered in the name of the senior

citizen residing therein: Provided, further, That the monthly consumption does not

exceed one hundred kilowatt hours (100 kWh) of electricity and thirty cubic meters (30

m3) of water: Provided, furthermore, That the privilege is granted per household

regardless of the number of senior citizens residing therein;

"(d) exemption from training fees for socioeconomic programs;

"(e) free medical and dental services, diagnostic and laboratory fees such as, but not

limited to, x-rays, computerized tomography scans and blood tests, in all government

facilities, subject to the guidelines to be issued by the DOH in coordination with the

PhilHealth;

"(f) the DOH shall administer free vaccination against the influenza virus and

pneumococcal disease for indigent senior citizen patients;

"(g) educational assistance to senior citizens to pursue pot secondary, tertiary, post

tertiary, vocational and technical education, as well as short-term courses for retooling

in both public and private schools through provision of scholarships, grants, financial

aids, subsides and other incentives to qualified senior citizens, including support for

books, learning materials, and uniform allowances, to the extent feasible: Provided,

That senior citizens shall meet minimum admission requirements;

"(h) to the extent practicable and feasible, the continuance of the same benefits and

privileges given by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), the Social

Security System (SSS) and the PAG-IBIG, as the case may be, as are enjoyed by those in

actual service;

"(i) retirement benefits of retirees from both the government and the private sector shall

be regularly reviewed to ensure their continuing responsiveness and sustainability, and

to the extent practicable and feasible, shall be upgraded to be at par with the current

scale enjoyed by those in actual service;

"(j) to the extent possible, the government may grant special discounts in special

programs for senior citizens on purchase of basic commodities, subject to the guidelines

to be issued for the purpose by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the

Department of Agriculture (DA);

"(k) provision of express lanes for senior citizens in all commercial and government

establishments; in the absence thereof, priority shall be given to them; and

"(l) death benefit assistance of a minimum of Two thousand pesos (Php2, 000.00) shall

be given to the nearest surviving relative of a deceased senior citizen which amount shall

be subject to adjustments due to inflation in accordance with the guidelines to be issued

by the DSWD.

"In the availment of the privileges mentioned above, the senior citizen, or his/her duly

authorized representative, may submit as proof of his/her entitled thereto any of the

following:

"(1) an identification card issued by the Office of the Senior Citizen Affairs

(OSCA) of the place where the senior citizen resides: Provided, That the

identification card issued by the particular OSCA shall be honored nationwide;

"(2) the passport of the senior citizen concerned; and

"(3) other documents that establish that the senior citizen is a citizen of the

Republic and is at least sixty (60) years of age as further provided in the

implementing rules and regulations.

"In the purchase of goods and services which are on promotional discount, the senior

citizen can avail of the promotional discount or the discount provided herein, whichever

is higher.

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